1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to implantable medical devices. More specifically, the present invention relates to implantable medical devices with communication systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Implantable medical devices (IMDs) are now used to provide countless therapies and to monitor a wide variety of physiological events. Conventionally, communication with IMDs has been with inductive coupling communication systems. Such systems, however, are generally only capable of communicating over very short distances. As a result, a magnetic head of a programmer (or other external device) must be located very near the IMD for communication to occur. More recently, radio frequency (RF) communication systems have been developed for use with IMDs. RF communication provides a number of benefits over inductive coupling communication systems, including much greater communication distances.
Because an IMD is implanted within the body of a patient, battery usage is one consideration for an IMD communication system. Methods of reducing the amount of time that the receiver of an IMD operates can be beneficial in improving power consumption.